Stormwind:Marine
by Mattrocks
Summary: When a Space Marine of the Stormwind Marines Chapter falls from the sky and lands on Azeroth from a freak Warp Storm, he must utilize the help of whatever allies can can make on this new world to get back home.
1. Chapter 1

Stormwind: Marine

A Warhammer 40,000/Warcraft Crossover (Practice)

By Kiwi Productions

(Matthew Co)

Chapter One

Niko Gearhammer's PoV

I, Gnome Paladin Niko Gorenzo Gearhammer of the Order of the Holy Shield, didn't want to be here.

Surely, the fact that _I_, of all people, was currently in the middle of a gathering held by _warlocks_ on "How to Hurt Demons Effectively" was more than enough to make me uncomfortable. I mean, why the hell was it that we, paladins of the Light, took the advice of warlocks? I wasn't sure, but Justicar Josetta would have none of my points.

She sent me and my talking Netherwhelp sidekick, Sparky, as well as a few paladins of our Order, to learn more about how to kill demons more efficiently, as you might've guessed at the title of the meeting, when we could be back in Northrend, killing Scourge and paving the way into Icecrown Citadel.

This meeting was a simple waste of time. I already _knew_ how to hurt a demon effectively.

'Sparky, I seriously doubt this is gonna be worth it,' I whispered to Sparky. 'It's just a bunch of warlocks waggling their fingers and pointing at the vulnerable points of demons.'

Sparky turned around and looked at me. The fact that he was, in fact, sitting down rather than hovering in the air was a feat unto itself, and I found my large blue eyes hovering towards his well-rounded cute belly as his glowing blue eyes narrowed at me.

'Niko, you know the motto of the Knights of the Holy Shield!' he simply squeaked back. '"We are the living weapons of the Alliance; Forged in blood, tempered in battle…"'

'"...Our function: Cleanse the unclean, Purge the Unholy and Crush the corrupt and impure." Yes, I know the motto, Sparky,' I finished, sighing. 'But this gathering's unnecessary. I already _know_ where to hit demons to kill them in the most efficient manner.'

Sparky simply glared at me. Although Sparky's frustration actually looked kind of cute, I knew better than to laugh or smile at him, as the last time someone laughed at that very look… I shuddered from the inside at Sparky's own brand of retribution. Last time we saw that fellow, he was dangling from a signpost in Ironforge by his underpants, his own hammer's haft stuck up his… well, the place where the sun don't shine, if you, uh, see what I mean.

'Oh, _really?_' Sparky squeaked at me. I just nodded.

'Of course. You just aim for the crotch and swing your hammer at it with all your might. 'Nuff said.'

Wiser words never said, I say. It's true; even the females among demons generally find a two-handed adamantium blessed hammer rammed up there with a lot of force painful.

'And if they don't _have_ a crotch, Paladin Gearhammer?'

I turned to see one of the warlocks, a fellow gnome, peering at me with suspicion. Head Warlock Istfan has his arms across his purple-robed chest as he spoke to me.

Arrogant bastard.

'All demons have a crotch,' I pointed out from experience, scratching my grey, handsome groomed hair and my mutton-chop beard. 'Even the female ones. It still has the same effect.'

'Not all demons have a crotch, Paladin Gearhammer,' Istfan said, 'which shows your ignorance. And I thought we warlocks were supposed to be ignorant…'

The warlock sighed dramatically as everyone around the bonfire looked at me.

What? Warlocks _are_ ignorant. Just take a look at pretty much any orc and you'll see what I mean. It's because of warlocks and demons that orcs became so screwed-up.

'…and to see if your principle works, I'll summon an infernal, a demon that does _not_ have a crotch, and see how you deal with it.'

Huzzah.

Before Sparky could protest, the Head Warlock started his chanting to summon the demon to the material plane. Everyone took a few steps back and watched in earnest as the warlock's hands burst into flame, bringing the infernal closer. I simply stood up and took out my trusty two-handed hammer and grinned at the Head Warlock.

'You say I'm ignorant,' I said, aware that the warlock was too focussed in his spell to listen. 'We'll see who the ignorant one is when I show you just how Niko Gearhammer gets stuff _done!_'

Before I knew it, the ritual was complete. The wailing sound of a large, heavy object falling from the heavens and towards Goldshire could be heard – the telltale signs of an Infernal approaching. Sparky flew up and perched on my shoulder as both me and Istfan took a few steps back to give the flaming rock some space to land.

A few seconds later, the rock crashed into the space between the both of us, dead center in the middle of the road. Smoke rose out of the crater as everyone waited for the demon to crawl out.

Ten seconds passed, and it still didn't come out. Thirty. A minute. Istfan scratched his head.

'That's strange... Infernals don't take even ten seconds to get out of a crater…' he admitted.

Curious about what had happened, I walked up to the edge of the crater and looked down into it, as did Istfan.

There, in the middle of the crater, was a large, silver-armoured figure the likes no one had ever seen before.

Bah. It wasn't an infernal, but I'd rather whack myself in the face with my hammer than admit it to Istfan.

Shrugging for a second, I slid down the small crater between the unconscious figure's legs, and raised my hammer above my head. He wasn't an infernal, but he'd just have to do. After all, he _did_ come in the same way an infernal should've. Who would blame me?

Before I could swing down, Spark grabbed my arms, stopping me from completing the movement.

'What the _hell are you doing?_' the netherwhelp squeaked in protest.

I sighed.

'It's got a crotch, Sparky! You think I'm gonna let all-high-and-mighty up on the edge of this crater get his satisfaction of calling me ignorant without being shown who's boss?'

'It's not a demon, Niko! It's human!' Istfan yelled down at me. 'Put that bloody hammer away!'

Those words got the attention of everyone that had attended the meeting, and they all gathered at the edges of the crater. Gasps went around the attendees as Istfan slid down the crater to have a closer look at the giant figure.

I put my hammer down as I examined the figure. Every part of the unconscious figure was armoured except for its head, and I had to hop up onto its chest to see its unarmoured face. Istfan was right, Light damn his soul. It was human – it even had a black ponytail and short, full beard. But it wasn't like any other human I'd seen. Humans weren't seven gnomish feet tall.

'Who could it be?' I managed.

'It could be a paladin, Niko,' Sparky managed. 'I think we'd better get him to Stormwind. You see that symbol on his shoulder?'

I managed to spare a glance at the armoured figure's shoulderpad. It was a sword on top of a shield.

'He might be one of the Knights of the Holy Shield's templars,' Sparky continued, and I knew he was right. The symbol on the man's shoulder guard was almost the same as the one on my shoulderguard, although the style was slightly different. 'We'd best get him to Duke Edric over in the Cathedral of Light. He might know what to do.'

I nodded.

'Best we can do,' I simply said. I then spotted a grey, stocky a miniature musket-like contraption hanging from one side of his belt and what appears to be a one-sided blade with triangular teeth, much like a saw on a goblin lumber shredder.

I plucked both contraptions from the giant's belt.

'What in the name of the Light are these?' I asked, mostly to myself before depositing both things on the edges of the crater before pulling on the gauntlet of the giant to drag him out.

Light, he was heavier than heaving an anvil around, that's for sure.

It was as if I'd triggered something, because suddenly, the massive human groaned. I dropped the arm immediately and scrambled back up the crater as the crowd backed off as the giant started to slowly wake up.

As I reached the top of the crater with Sparky on my shoulder, I turned around and looked at the armoured figure as it shifted at the bottom of the small crater.

'Lok'tar Ogar! FOR THE HORDE!'

I spun around, eyes widening as he saw a group of about ten Horde scouts charge towards us.

Horde scum!

Their leader, an orc, had managed to get up close to me, and now had his two-handed sword above his head, ready to bring it down upon me. Crap. This was going to suck. I wasn't able to even lift my hammer up in time to parry.

Turns out, I didn't have to.

Before the orc bastard could bring the sword down on me, the large armoured figure leaps over my head and tackles the orc to the ground, and with one hand, he ripped the scout's head clean off.

As we watched, he quickly stood up to full height, and a roar tore itself from his lips;

'_FOR THE EMPEROR!_'

****************

Brother-Sergeant Matthew Corschach's PoV

I woke to the smell of smoke, soot, scorched earth and… wait. Sweat?

As my eyes flickered open, I saw that I was in the middle of a crater. Faces, human and humanoid alike looked down at me as I stirred. I slowly picked myself up. Where the frak was I? Where the frak had the bloody Warp Storm had blown us off to?

Looking around quickly, I saw the faces – some of them were human, others... mutants. Or xeno. I wasn't exactly able to tell the difference in my dazed state, but I knew that they were looking down at me with awe.

My bolt pistol and chainsword had been taken from my belt, and now lay beside one of the smaller mutants, whose back was turned away from me. By the Emperor, he was only one human foot tall!

I was about to reach for my weapons when I saw out of the corner of my eye why it was that the mini-mutant had his back turned to me. In front of him was a large, green-skinned xeno I noticed looked very similar to an Ork with a large, archaic sword over his head, about to bring it down upon the mutant.

One of the many things I learned while training as a neophyte in the newly-created Space Marine chapter of the Stormwind Marines is how to think quickly on your feet. I figured that since the mutant had managed to disarm me and hadn't used the opportunity to kill me, I guessed that they were with me.

And so, I leapt over the tiny mutant and onto the ork, tackling it down to the ground.

Before it could react, I tore its head off with my right hand. Standing back up straight after, I looked around. The ork wasn't alone.

There were humans in the same red garb as the ork, but I instantly recognised them as servants of Nurgle, with their rotting flesh showing. There were also other xenos, some with greenish-bluish skin and pointy ears, and others that looked like a mix between humans and the cows back home on Tarvis IV. There were nine of them now, their leader's headless.

And so, I bellowed out the cry that would rally any servant of the Emperor to fight.

'_FOR THE EMPEROR!_' I bellowed.

To my surprise, the fellows around the crater I had been in just gave me a confusing look. It appeared that I had landed on a world where they had not heard of the glorious Emperor. Other Space Marine chapters would've thought it blasphemous. I, being a Stormwind Marine, knew that not every world had known about the Emperor. I guess I would have to teach them later.

Swiping my bolt pistol and chainsword from the ground, I spun around to meet the first of my attackers, a Nurgulite, who had swung a battered sword at me. The blow simply bounced off my armour, and I kicked it in the chest, sending it onto its back. I thumbed the activator rune of my chainsword, leapt onto the unnatural thing's chest and rammed it straight into its throat.

I stood back up, only to be met by a burst of fire that hit my chest.

It had been one of the pointy-eared xenos that had thrown the fireball at me. Its eyes widened in horror for a few seconds before the barking of my bolt pistol sounded and its head exploded as more of its allies charged me.

One of them, wielding a large two-handed axe started spinning around in circles like a whirlwind like a madman just before he reached me. Wondering how it was such a move could prove useful, I simply aimed with my bolt pistol at his exposed head and blew his xeno brains out with one shot.

The axe was flung wildly out of his dead hands, and it slit the throats of two of his allies before it embedded itself in the face of another.

Only three remained now. I spat acid at one of my assailants, blinding him as he screamed in agony, holding his face as the acid got to work before I shot his two remaining friends in the heads with my pistol.

As the last one fell to his knees, I approached him, reversed the grip on my chainsword, and then rammed it into the middle of his head, the teeth grinding his brains to mush before he finally died.

I pulled out my chainsword, thumbed the deactivator rune, and sheathed both of my weapons, looking at the carnage that I had wrought. I went on one knee and prayed to the spirits of my wargear that they were sated by the blood of my enemies.

After a few seconds, I stood back up and looked behind me to see the assorted humans and mutants looking back at me with awe and fear apparent on their faces. The short mutant that had placed my weapons on the ground walked over to me, and to my surprise, saluted.

'Very nice killing you did there, sir,' he said in an awed tone in Low Gothic. 'I'm Niko Gearhammer, Gnome Paladin of the Knights of the Holy Shield. And you are?'

I coughed, remembering the Low Gothic I had learned from my time in the orphanage in Skandavis, Tarvis IV's capital city, before I was inducted into the Stormwind Marines.

'Brother-Sergeant Matthew Corschach of the Stormwind Marines Chapter,' I introduced myself, extending a gauntlet towards him, which he shook, to my surprise. 'You wouldn't happen to know where the closest Imperium outpost is, would you?'

The gnome shook his head.

'Imperium… outpost…?' he asked me, scratching his head. 'Brother-Sergeant, this is Azeroth. There's, uh, Stormwind City over yonder, I guess. Otherwise, I've got no idea what this "Imperium" is. Does it have anything to do with this "Emperor" fellow you were talking about earlier?'

It was then I realized. Chapter Master Eric had told the neophytes of the Stormwind Marines about the time he was blown off-course by a Warp Storm and ended up in a place called Azeroth. He said that he'd found the city called Stormwind, and impressed by the valour this city's people showed, he named the Chapter after it.

At first I thought he'd been kidding, making up the story just to pass the time. Now I knew otherwise.

But if I was here, where was everyone else from the _Penance_? Where was the rest of the Stormwind Marines Chapter?

The entire Chapter only had one Company, and had been on the _Penance_ when it entered the warp storm by accident, including Chapter Master Eric and my beloved beautiful Sonja Fioras, one of the Chapter serfs. What had happened to them?

I feared the worst. And worst of all, I knew that without my battle-brothers, I would be left stranded, alone.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N:Sorry about the wait, guys - I know it's been a while. Just... stuff to get fixed up and all, as well as more posting with my story Left 4 Dead: Lambs 2 Slaughter. Please, read it and give me reviews there, too - I feel empty that my biggest work so far hasn't got ANY reviews :(

Ah well. Enjoy :D

Chapter Two

Niko Gearhammer's PoV

This situation was bloody awkward, I can say that.

I had put on my best kiss-arse smile just to avoid being done in by this giant that called itself Brother-Sergeant Matthew Corschach. Hell, his boot was bigger than I am. If you were seeing things from my perspective and were in my shoes, you would've done the same.

Sparky had made himself scarce from the giant's gaze by instant-teleporting back to his home in the Netherfields back in Outland. Meh. He'd be back soon. He generally does that when he's scared crapless, which, surprisingly, isn't very often.

Now, I had no idea what it was this "Emperor" or "Imperium" or "Space Marine" stuff was, but the one thing I did notice was the word "Stormwind". Was it sheer coincidence that whatever Order this fellow belonged to was named after the city of the humans? I only asked myself this since no Order that I'd ever heard about had members that spat acid, crushed skulls in one hand and towered over everyone else, nor had I seen equipment the likes of which he wielded.

Judging by the way he was staring out into space, I think he was plain lost. He hadn't said anything for the past thirty seconds, and no one else dared to speak up either.

'Erm… excuse me, Brother-Sergeant?' I piped up, in my best kiss-arse tone. 'What are you going to do now?'

He shrugged as he looked down at me, his green eyes looking at me.

'Tell me, Niko, is there anyone who I can speak to?' he asked me.

I shrugged as well.

'Well… you're talking to me, for a start.'

'No, I mean, as in, anyone… well… higher up? I'm going to need some help with a little scouting. I need to find my battle-brothers.'

Again, I shrugged.

'Well, there's the leader of the Knights of the Holy Shield back in Stormwind, Duke Fenris,' I suggested. 'He might be able to help you out.'

The giant nodded.

'Take me to him.'

With that, I did. Walking out of Goldshire and leaving the stunned Warlock meeting behind, I led my new friend towards the gates of Stormwind.

'So, what's all this "Emperor" stuff, anyways?' I asked him. I'd never heard of such stuff before, but I was curious.

'He is the Master of our universe,' he explained. 'He is the great power that keeps the Imperium alive. Every day, thousands of souls are sacrificed to keep Him alive.'

What the hell was this? The way I saw it, this Emperor fellow was worse than the Lich King, for crying out loud!

Matt must've seen the disgusted expression on my face.

'You seem offended, Niko,' he said, raising an eyebrow at me.

'This… this Emperor of yours sounds like some mass-murderer arse-hole to me,' I replied truthfully.

It was then he gave me a glare that I will remember for the rest of my life. Uh-oh. I think I pissed him off, seeing how his large boot raised itself up, and brought itself down upon me.

Bringing up my short arms as high as I could, I managed to stop the boot crushing me at first. The same couldn't be said of the weight afterwards, as I could feel my arms already hurting. Heaving with all of my strength, I managed to push upwards enough to push his boot away.

Although he was surprised, he instantly unsheathed his mini-musket and aimed it at me. I managed to call up a divine shield before the bullet hit. It exploded harmlessly inches from my face.

Nonetheless, seeing how his weapon didn't have much of an effect on me, he resorted to using his boot again, only this time punting me across the road. Unfortunately, the divine shield wore off in mid-air, and I managed to grab hold of a tree branch to avoid landing roughly.

Hanging on for dear life with both of my four-fingered hands, my eyes widened as I saw him walk towards me, unsheathe his sword-saw and start it up.

Oh, crap. There ain't nothing I can do now.

I close my eyes shut as I hear the ugly whirring sound of that bloody thing fill my ears and wait for the strike.

It doesn't come.

Well, actually, more to the point, it does come, but it's not aimed at me. I gasp out in horror as the branch that I'm clinging to drops to the ground, me included. I look up at the menacing giant as he looks down at me.

He sighs, deactivates his sword-saw and holds out a massive gauntlet towards me. Uncertainly, I took it and pulled myself back up.

'Look, Niko, I'm real sorry about that,' he apologizes. 'It's just that the situation I'm in at the moment… it's screwing over my thinking.'

I nod. I've seen strong men snap under pressure, and I suppose that Brother-Sergeant Corschach isn't exempt from that.

'My mistake,' I say as I look at him. 'I suppose I might act the same way if some smaller fellow says the same thing about the Holy Light.'

Actually, I wouldn't have, but trying to emphasize with a giant ten times bigger than you to avoid getting killed is generally a good tactic.

He nods as we continue our walk to Stormwind.

'I'll have to warn you, though, if you say that sort of thing around any of my other battle-brothers, you might not be so lucky,' he says. 'What is this Holy Light stuff of yours, anyway? That shield you put up isn't dissimilar to a Rosarius.'

I shrug. More terms that I don't know about.

'It's something that exists throughout Azeroth and Outland,' I reply. 'It… I don't really think I can properly explain it. It's… a force. A force we Paladins use to heal others, protect others, or, in my general case, smite stuff.'

Matt nods once more. I think he was about to say something else, but he stops and stares at the gates of Stormwind. We've arrived.

'Well, Brother-Sergeant Corschach, welcome to Stormwind, the city of heroes and noble and justice,' I greet him. The giant seems at a loss for words as we continue walking inside past all of the massive statues that commemorate various Alliance heroes over the ages.

The guards, however, are looking at Corschach as much as he is looking at the in the Valley of Heroes statues, and I'm beginning to wonder if it was such a good idea to let him in here.

Up ahead, mounted on a stocky brown horse is an old friend of mine, General Marcus Jonathan, the High Commander of Defence here in Stormwind. He rides up to the both of us, Matt's form still towering over both him and the horse.

'Niko Gearhammer, what have you brought in this time?' he asks me, his green eyes looking at Brother-sergeant Corschach carefully as he scratches his big, bushy moustache. Matt doesn't look back at him, his gaze still on the statues of the heroes.

'Oh, nothing much, Marcus,' I said. 'This giant's Brother-Sergeant Matthew Corschach. I'm taking him over to Duke Fenris to see if we can help him out.'

The High Commander nods, although he doesn't seem fully convinced.

'Well, I don't exactly like the look of him, but I suppose that if you're fine with him, he'll be fine with the rest of us,' he says. He turns back to Matt and extends his hand. 'Brother-Sergeant, if you're a friend of Niko Gearhammer's, then I suppose you're a friend of mine. Let me be the first to welcome you to Stormwind.'

Matt turns around and shakes the High Commander's hand. To my horror, the colour in Marcus' face drains as my big friend's hand dwarfs and seems to crush his hand.

'Thank you, sir. I can see why this city is a good city,' he nods, seemingly oblivious to the High Commander's pained expression as he lets go of his hand.

Marcus gulps before turning to face me, his crushed digits shaking.

'Well, Niko… a big friend you've got there,' he manages before holding out his hand. 'If you can…?'

I cringe at the mess Matt's hand caused, and I heal it.

'Thank you, Niko,' he curtsies before leaning in towards me and lowering his voice to a whisper. 'Well, if you're off to see Duke Fenris, make sure you tell him that it's best the Knights of the Holy Shield start packing to go. Those bastards in the House of Nobles are getting antsy. I'd hate for the situation to end up in violence.'

'Don't worry,' I assure him. 'Duke Fenris is already packing. Thanks for the warning, though.'

Marcus salutes, and the both of us start walking towards the Trade District.

'What was all that about?' Matt asks me as a few more guards salute and look at the giant nervously. I look up back at him.

'What was what?'

'The whole thing about the Knights of the Holy Shield needing to get out of here. What's going on there?'

My eyebrow rises up on its own.

'How the hell did you hear that?' I ask him.

'My hearing's far sharper than a normal human's,' he explains, pointing two of his armoured digits to one of his ears. 'So. Tell me. What's going on?'

I sighed.

'Okay. First off, I'm going to have to explain from the start…'

And so I explain. Everything that's happened since the beginning of the Argent Crusade to today, I explain. About the Scourge, Northrend, all the stuff that everyone else knows.

'You see,' I continue after explaining the rest, 'the Knights of the Holy Shield are one of the main members of the Argent Crusade. However, Stormwind's House of Nobles, "Noble" my hairy arse, have a problem with us.'

He raises an eyebrow at me as I bench outside of the Stormwind Auction House, with him sitting on the ground, as he was too heavy. Plenty of commoners are looking our way, and it's making me nervous.

'What kind of problem?' he asks me. 'From the way you've explained things to me, the Argent Crusade seem like a good bunch of fellows.'

I nod. He has a point there.

'Well… I suppose it's more my fault. You see, Duke Fenris, although he's been recently elevated as Master of the Knights of the Holy Shield, has a daughter – a very, very beautiful daughter, at that. Y'see, it was one night a few days ago, and she was walking around the Canals with a lady friend, when some random noble by the name of Duke Edwards comes along and tries to seduce the both of them.'

I coughed.

'Of course, they both spurned his advances, so he tries to turn to rape. Luckily for them, I was nearby, and I showed him a lesson he probably won't forget in a hurry, especially with his groin mashed to bits with my hammer, if you, uh, see what I mean.'

Matt nods.

'And so, he's gathering up the rest of the House of Nobles to try and get the Knights of the Holy Shield done in because you did the right thing, right?' he fills in. I nod.

'I know! Getting your nuts mashed to bits and then getting them healed back to normal's one thing, but rape? I may be many things, brother, but even I don't stoop down that low,' I say, before quickly adding, 'not that I stoop down low to begin with – just more the choice of body parts I choose to pummel on my opponents.'

'Can't the King of Stormwind do anything about it?' Matt asks me. I shook my head.

'The King's a good fellow. He likes to protect his people. But at the moment, since all that crap at the Wrathgate, he's not exactly in the mood to reprimand his own fellows when open war with the Horde looms,' I reply before sliding off the bench. 'Come on. Best we get going.'

With that, we start walking towards the Cathedral District. Soon enough, the towering spires of the Cathedral of Light loom over us, and even the giant is more awed by this than the statues back in the Valley of Heroes. Around us, the sound of the monks chanting their midday prayers can be heard as we step inside.

'This reminds me of the Chapel-Barracks inside of the Stormwind Marines' Fortress-Monastery back on Tarvis IV,' Matt says, looking around at the beautiful stonework. I don't say anything, although it appears that the way the giant speaks seems to be getting to me, since I now have a proper idea of what a "Fortress-Monastery" and "Chapel-Barracks" are.

We reach a small passage that leads to the underground basement where the Knights of the Holy Order gather. One of members of our Order, Brother Samuel, is waiting at the entrance.

'Brother Niko. It is always a pleasure,' he greets us, and then turns to Matt. Unlike basically everyone else, I notice, he isn't intimidated by the giant. 'And who is this?'

'Brother-Sergeant Matthew Corschach,' my friend introduces himself.

'Sam. You mind going down and telling Duke Fenris that I need to see him about someone?' I ask Samuel. He nods and disappears down the passageway. After about a minute, he comes back up.

'The Duke is ready to see you,' he says. 'Oh, and it's been an honour working beside you, Niko.'

I raised an eyebrow at him.

'What's going on? Are you leaving us?' I ask him. He nods. 'Well, it's been an honour serving beside you too, Samuel. May the Light protect you.'

'And you too, Niko, and Brother Corschach.'

With that, he leaves, never to be seen again, before we walk down the passageway. As we pass the Knights' armoury, I see that all of the weapons, armour and the like have been removed. We're evacuating out of here for good, and I'll miss this place.

I open a large wooden door that leads to the chamber where Duke Fenris holds his meetings, and I see him in a large chair on the other side of the room, looking at us. His daughter is standing next to him. I genuflect towards him in respect.

To my surprise, Matt isn't genuflecting. I look up at him, and then I see the look on his face.

'Holy _frak_…' he manages.

* * *

Brother-Sergeant Matthew Corschach's PoV

I don't believe my eyes.

I blink again. My eyes don't deceive me.

'Holy _frak…_' I gasp. '…_Sonja?_'

The beautiful, long crimson-red haired girl in the room stares back at me. Her jaw dropped as her enveloping green eyes recognise me.

'…Matt?'

Niko doesn't appear to understand what's going on as Sonja, dressed in a tight leather outfit runs towards me and throws her arms around me. I nearly weep in joy as I hug her back.

'Sonja… I never thought I'd see you again…' I manage, holding her tight. Her face beams back at me.

'I didn't think I would, too,' she said, and then places her lips against mine. I savour the moment.

'Corschach. Good to see you've made it back to us,' the man in the chair says. I look up and recognise the voice.

'Chapter Master Eric?' I manage. He beams back at me. Somehow, and I don't know how, he's gotten… smaller.

'Woah, woah, WOAH! Wait a bloody second there! What the _hell_ is going on?' Niko yells out.

I open my mouth to speak, but Chapter Master Eric beats me to it.

'Niko… these are things that you have just been privy to that require the utmost secrecy at the moment,' he said. 'You see, the three of us aren't from Azeroth. Sonja and I posed as a duke's daughter and a duke to maintain our cover.'

Niko scratched his head, trying to take it all in.

'So… so… so if what I'm thinking is right… you three are from this "Stormwind Marines" guild of yours… right?' he asks. Chapter Master Eric nods. 'So then why the hell aren't you two as big as he is?'

'Sonja isn't a Space Marine,' Eric replies. 'It's only when we become Space Marines that we become bigger. I, on the other hand, managed to get a Gnomish World Enlarger from my younger self here on Azeroth.'

Wait. Chapter Master Eric had his younger self here?

'Corschach. I can see that look you're giving me.' He turns towards me. 'You probably met Brother Samuel already, haven't you?'

My jaw drops as the coin drops.

'He's off to take the portal back to our universe,' I guess out loud. The Chapter Master nods. 'So… so why don't we follow him and take it? We can be back on the _Penance_ right away-'

He raises a hand to stop me.

'You're forgetting something, Corschach. We weren't the only ones pulled into that freak Warp Storm. A few of the other Battle-Brothers were pulled in, too. We can't leave them here. Luckily enough, they should be coming through the Warp very soon.'

'But… but what about us getting out of here?' Sonja asks. 'Even if we do get all of our battle-brothers back, I've got the feeling we'll be stranded here.'

Eric nods.

'Luckily for us, I've got a Deep Strike Teleporter device with me. However, the hole caused by our entry into this world will close in approximately two weeks. Within that time the rest of Tactical Squad Corschach should have made planetfall across Azeroth.'

'Wait, wait, wait,' Niko said, 'I didn't get much of what you're saying, but I did understand what's going on. Problem is, Azeroth is bloody big. Two weeks isn't going to be enough to comb the entire planet of all your brothers.'

Once again, Eric nodded. He always had an answer for everything.

'I can configure the Deep Strike Teleporter device to act as a beacon,' he said. 'Problem is, it's going to need a stable point. I tried to set that up here in Stormwind until…'

'Those frak-wits in the House of Nobles are denying the resources to be able to set up such a beacon, aren't they?' I finished. Eric nodded.

'There's only one other city in Azeroth that the Knights of the Holy Shield can use as a base of operations,' he said. 'Orgrimmar.'

I nodded. Niko told me about the cities of the Horde, and Orgrimmar was the capital of the Orcs. If what Niko said was true, the Orcs were honourable and most likely going to help us out, as he, and, I suppose to a certain extent, I, was part of the Knights of the Holy Shield.

'Best to get moving now,' Eric said. 'The main caravan headed to Orgrimmar's already off.'

With that, the four of us left the room, and began our walk back up the passageway to the surface when the sounds of a commotion upstairs could be heard.

'Damnit! Don't be telling me that this place is empty!' A voice shouted from upstairs. 'My scouts saw that blasted gnome enter not but five minutes ago! In the name of the House of Nobles, get out of our way!'

Chapter Master Eric had heard the commotion as well, as he raised a hand before turning to me.

'Corschach, stay back. I'll deal with this. And if everything goes to frak, intervene. Best to let these frakkers think you're the only one of your kind here on Azeroth.'

I nodded and waited as they climbed up.

'A-HA! There you are! I was beginning to think I wouldn't be able to get you before you fled from the city,' the voice from previously spat from further up the passageway. 'And you, Duke Fenris, and Lady Sonja, will realize that nobody denies Duke Edwards! And nobody bloody hurts me and gets away with it!'

'Oi! You! Shut the fel up! If it's your bloody nuts you're talking about, remember it was _me_ who healed them back up in the first place, you wanker!' Niko's voice shouted. 'Piss the fel off and we'll be on our way!'

'Oh, you may have healed them back up, but remember it was _you_ who did the damage, you Light-blasted little gnome! And _you_ for not complying!'

I knew he was talking to Sonja. I was tempted to just go up there and kill the man for even _thinking_ of raping my dear Sonja. But I knew that Chapter Master Eric hadn't spoken yet.

'Duke Edwards, enough,' Eric's voice booms. 'It is bad enough that you tried to assault my daughter, who just so happens to be a part of the Knights of the Holy Order, and now you bring _twenty armoured men_ to try and detain us?'

I make note of the numbers in the back of my mind before unsheathing my chainsword and bolt pistol and marching up the passageway. Judging by the man's harsh attitude, I reckoned that it would be impossible to reason with him, even with Eric's silver tongue.

I adopt a slow, lumbering gait, letting my bootfalls echo across the cathedral to intimidate the enemy as I emerge from the passageway and straight into the view of a small force of Stormwind guardsmen.

'Is there a problem here?' I rumble as I take up my position in front of Eric, Sonja and Niko. Half of them are too awestruck at my size to realize that they're shaking. The other half are gripping their weapons and shields tightly.

In the middle of them I can see a fat, podgy man wearing a purple robe glaring up at me with an arrogance that reminds me of some nobles I've met during my campaigns on different worlds. This must be Duke Edwards.

I lift up my chainsword and hit the activation rune, letting it purr as I regale each of the assembled men with a baleful gaze. 'Run away, little men. Don't make me hurt you.'

It's a simple ploy, and my acting is bad enough that I'm having trouble keeping myself from laughing, but the point gets across. Half of them gulp and run. The other half are staring at my chainsword in awe until the annoying voice of Duke Edwards shrieked:

'ATTACK!'

Snapped out of their stupor, the remaining men charge. I charge in return swinging my blessed weapon left and right, decapitating and maiming, killing four of the men within seconds. My bolt pistol barks and two of the survivors' heads explode into a gory mess. I head butt one in the throat, causing his Adam's apple to fly out before kicking him into the last one of his colleagues.

The both end up crashing into the wall, where I skewer the both through the throat with my chainsword in one stab. Then, suddenly, a sharp pain hits my head from the inside.

Tearing my attention towards Duke Edwards, I see him waving his hands about, the fingertips glowing black.

'_Your minds are mine now…_' his voice says in my head in a surprisingly calm tone.

Mind tricks! But it was getting hard to resist...

I collapse onto my knees, and see Eric, Sonja and Niko succumbing to the same thing. No…

I knew how mind tricks worked - I was unable to guess at how me, Eric and Sonja were being affected, as we were all "blanks", but at least I knew how to counter them. Perhaps this wasn't a psyker trick.

And so, I put up my defences; I imagined this fat slob doing the worst he could to Sonja.

There is a well-known proverb in the Imperium – "Hate enriches." I guess I could testify now that it was true. I felt his will weaken over me instantly.

'_MY MIND IS MY OWN, HERETIC!_' I roared before leaping at him.

Tackling him to the ground, he looked up at me for the last time with a look of sheer shock on his face before I introduced him to my armoured gauntlet over and over and over again, until nothing remained of his ugly face except a bloody mash of blood and bone.

The bloodlust went as soon as it had come; I regained control over myself and rose to my feet and turned towards the others.

'Good work… Corschach…' Eric managed. Somehow, he had been affected by whatever foul magic Duke Edwards had managed to conjure. 'Now… I think it's time… to get the hell out of here, don't you?'

I nodded. I picked Niko up and put him on my shoulder as he protested at being manhandled, and we ran as fast as we could out of the Cathedral of Light. Luckily we'd managed to get out of Stormwind before the rest of the guardsmen could be alerted at what had happened.

The caravan of the Knights of the Holy Shield was waiting for us outside the gates of Stormwind. Everyone else climbed aboard one of the wagons as I walked beside it, my power armour too heavy for the primitive transport.

Sonja smiled at me.

'Good work back there, Matt,' she said, giving me a smile and a peck on the cheek. 'Hopefully, you won't have to do all that again until we're out of Azeroth.'

Sonja was right most of the time. The only time she'd been wrong before was when it came to a bet we had back on Tarvis IV, back at home, when we were kids.

Unfortunately, there was a first time for everything. And this, I would realize, would be one of those times.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Sorry about the bit of hiatus, guys. Been working on Left 4 Dead: Lambs 2 Slaughter V.3. and other stuff, so Stormwind: Marine's sort-of on a bit of the backburner, but it's not forgotten and will be updated - just not too regularly. Here's Chapter Three :D It's a tad bit rushed, but I think you'll like it, as well as a few of the references I make as well as who's next to die on Corschach's killing list :D

Chapter Three

Niko Gearhammer's PoV

I'll be damned.

Seriously. What happened back at Stormwind before I realized that my Order was in fact a cover for three people who weren't even from Azeroth was nasty enough.

But what I saw Corschach do to the Stormwind guards… Sure, I'd seen what he could do to Horde that attacked a member of the Knights of the Holy Shield. But that's different. They actually _deserved_ the punishment there for not giving a damn about me.

These guardsmen… I couldn't push them out of my mind. They'd died gruesome and quick deaths – quicker than maybe even King Varian could kill. Whoever these "Stormwind Marines" were, they sure were people I didn't want to cross.

Not to mention they had more of their "battle-brothers" to come here. What would happen if this turned into an invasion? Corschach was already bordering on too overzealous for my liking, and apparently he's one of more lenient ones.

The three of them give me smiles as I sit on the cart as we ride a goblin zeppelin from Grom'gol in Stranglethorn straight to Orgrimmar, but it's like their smiles hold daggers behind them. Hell, even the smile from Sonja, who's sitting next to me and apparently unlike Corschach and Duke Fenris, looks the same.

Hell, to digress a bit, it was amazing we boarded the zeppelin without much trouble. It's probably because the Horde are so used to seeing big fellas – read: Tauren – even though Corschach was bigger than even the biggest Tauren I'd seen.

Maybe I'm being too paranoid. Maybe the Stormwind Marines don't want to take over Azeroth. It's been a long while since I've felt like this, and I don't like it.

'Niko?'

I hear the very quiet voice from behind me. I turn around and only see a stack of secured crates. I raise an eyebrow, and turn back around, but then I hear the sound again, only louder this time.

Oh, finally. I get up and look behind the crates to find Sparky cowering behind them.

'Sparky! Where the fel have you been all this time?' I ask him sternly.

'H…hiding, Niko. I see these strangers. They'se scare me,' he squeaked. 'You saw what that big one did to those Horde and Stormwind City guardsmen, didn't you?'

I sighed, but then before I could continue, Sonja's head poke out from behind me. I notice it too late as she spots Sparky.

'Aaaaaaaw. Sparky! Come here!' she beckons. Luckily enough, Sparky knows Sonja and Duke Fenris. It's him seeing Corschach that's got me worried.

Sparky flies over to Sonja, and she holds him gently, smiling at his cute face and tickling the insides of his wings with her long, smooth fingers. Sparky seems to enjoy all this until she speaks up.

'Matt! Come over here, you've got to see this little fella!' she beckons to Corschach.

Oh, _fel._

Sparky hears the crunch of Matt's boots as he approaches, and raises his head. Big mistake.

My little netherwhelp sidekick's eyes widen and curls into a defensive ball in Sonja's lap, trembling.

'EEEEEEEEEK!' he squeals, much to Sonja's surprise.

He keeps this up until one of Corschach's armoured fingers rubs him in the belly. It's irresistible to the little netherwhelp, and he begins to unfurl and start purring approvingly. I smile. I suppose there's compassion in these killing machines.

'We're getting ready to touch down in Orgrimmar, Fenris,' I hear a goblin, our zeppelin driver, say. 'Docking's in approximately one minute.'

Duke Fenris nods and replies accordingly, flicking a gold coin to our zeppelin driver. I take a look outside the zeppelin.

Durotar's orangey, mostly barren landscape is the kind of place I'd rather not be. I don't know about you, but I'd rather freeze to death than die from heat exhaustion.

There's a loud thump as the zeppelin docks. I get up along with my companions, and we disembark from the flying vehicle, letting the other Knights of the Holy Shield start with the heavy lifting, since Duke Fenris wants to meet with Thrall.

He insisted I come along as well, which was understandable – I'd met Thrall before, as I might've said, and he was really decent, even for an honourable orc. Hell, I even offered to buy him a mug of ale the next time we met.

The only problem I had with coming along, however, was Garrosh Hellscream.

It wasn't any mystery that mostly no one liked the fel-wit. Sure, he'd be great on the battlefield – he certainly lived up to his last name. Everywhere else, however… I put up a joke that went along the lines of, "your basic campfire would be a better leader than Garrosh" during a break with some of my fellow Knights, and to my surprise, they didn't laugh – they just nodded, which comes to show just how bad he was.

The orc's temper and arrogance was unlike anything I'd seen before. Sure, King Varian had his moments, but at least he had one helluva good reason to be. Garrosh… I sighed inside. It was as if he'd declared war on the Alliance for nothing!

And the worst part was, he was going to become Warchief! The arse-wipe had even insulted Tirion himself, for Light's sake!

I kept thinking about what we were going to do as we entered the city. Of course, we got the usual greeting – respectful nods from the guards, cheers from a few civilians and both staring at Corschach's massive armour – which helped me put my doubts at ease.

Duke Fenris led us through the winding city that was Orgrimmar and to the place where Thrall sat, the name of which I couldn't remember. The Kor'kron guards, the elites from what I learned, saluted in our direction as we approached.

I looked up to see Matt's reaction, and to my surprise, there was a slight look of contempt on his face that I would've missed were it not for my ability to read facial expressions. I wondered what kind of universe he came from to dislike the orcs before he came to know them.

The massive form of Thrall as we entered rose up and smiled as we entered, greeting us in something Orcish before speaking in Common.

'It is good to see you, Duke Fenris. Members of the Argent Crusade are always welcome here in Orgrimmar,' he greeted. He turned towards me. 'And you too, Niko. I wish it were under better circumstances that we'd have met again, my friend.'

I nodded and smiled back. It was a wonder how anyone didn't like the orc.

'Well, it doesn't seem like we're welcome here,' Corschach spoke up.

Oh. Fel. On a _stick_.

To my relief, Thrall kept his temper under control.

'Excuse me?' he asked. The Space Marine looked at him.

'It doesn't seem like we're welcome here,' he repeated. 'I can see you're an exception amongst orcs, Thrall, but why is it that I hear fighting outside?'

Thrall was, for the first time I'd seen him, dumbstruck.

'Fighting? Who are you?' he asked before turning towards an orc at his side – a scout, no doubt. 'Go and see. If there's fighting, I want to know. _Now_.'

The scout nodded, but before he could move, someone else entered the room. I turned.

I'll say it again. Oh. Fel. On a _stick._

It was Garrosh.

Brother-Sergeant Matthew Corschach's PoV

'I had to clean up those Alliance filth outside that you let into the city, _Thrall_,' a voice sneered. I turned to find a brown-skinned orc wearing black plate armour stride into the room, a look of contempt on his face.

'Garrosh! Those were the Argent Crusade!' the orc called Thrall rises out of his seat, shaking in anger. 'What have you done?'

'Cleaned up, that's what,' Garrosh spat. 'You let these filthy scumbags into the city. A real Warchief wouldn't do such a thing.'

I immediately clasped my hand over Sonja's mouth just as she was about to retort. She could be a bit of a spitfire at times, and she hardly could take an insult without insulting back. I tensed. There was something about this Garrosh I didn't like, and it wasn't his personality. It took all of my will to stop me from attacking straight away.

Emperor forgive me, it was only because of Chapter Master Eric that I didn't attack any of these orcs when I first saw them! They were shorter and more civilized than the orks I had known back in our universe, but orks they were.

Still, attacking the city wouldn't have gotten the rest of Tactical Squad Corschach back, and I put that priority first. However, it proved to be of no use as Garrosh finally noticed us.

'More filth! Time for you to _die_.'

Thrall tried to restrain Garrosh, but it was then I saw something familiar. The reason why I didn't like him at all.

When Thrall tried to hold him back, Garrosh simply turned around, and a crackle of Warp magic sprung from his hand, knocking the orc Warchief off his feet and into a wall, unconscious, his two handed hammer landing on the throne. The powers of Chaos were present on Azeroth! I had a feeling that if it weren't for our presence, Garrosh would've killed Thrall right there and then. The Kor'kron guards backed out of the room, unsure of wether or not to intervene.

'You stand up for the weak,' Garrosh spat. 'That is why you are no Warchief, _Thrall._' He turned towards us and took out a large axe. 'You. Will. **_Die_**.'

His voice had turned daemonic. Somehow, I had the feeling that even though we were blanks, the daemon's hold on Garrosh was strong enough to hold on and control him. I drew my chainsword and stood in front of them.

'No one tells a Space Marine what to do, especially a demon-infested ork like _you!_'

I drew my bolt pistol and fired, but Garrosh was deceptively quick, dodging the bullets and raising his axe. He took a swipe at me, which hit my sides.

Normally such a strike from a weapon like that wouldn't have done much to my power armour. But it was backed up by daemonic force and cut through the armour. Snarling in pain, I immediately threw a punch at him, which connected and threw the frakker off me, ripping his axe out of my sides at the same time.

'**BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!**' Garrosh roared, readying himself for another attack. I fired a few more shots at him, but they bounced off some sort of despicable shield of sorts. I immediately holstered my bolt pistol. That wasn't going to work in this fight.

I managed to draw my chainsword out as he charged again, parrying the blow.

'Fine. He can have yours,' I spat before thumbing the activator rune to full speed and taking a swipe at him. An old mock, but worth repeating.

I managed to score a swipe on his face, inflicting a massive diagonal gash on his face. His left eye, nose and the right side of his mouth were frakked now. Lashing out with a kick, I sent him backwards before thrusting forward with the weapon not designed to be thrust.

The chainsword spitted him through his stomach, the monomolecular blades churning his insides into mush. I was about to bring it up to rip his chest into two, but suddenly his hand stopped me from doing so with an surprising amount of force.

I looked up to find that he was grinning at me, and I saw that the demon that possessed him. It kicked me back and into the throne, my grip on the chainsword giving away. As I tumbled, I saw that he grabbed the chainsword, still whirring, and snapped it into two before discarding it.

I spared a glance at Eric, Sonja and Niko. They wouldn't be able to help – Eric was still weak from Duke Edward's attempt to control his mind since the "Gnomish World Enlarger" he'd used amplified the damage he'd take, and Sonja, for all her fighting prowess, was no match for this beast. Niko… I had the feeling that he was too shocked to do anything.

Garrosh took one last evil grin at me before beginning to float upwards.

Oh, _frak_.

With a sudden jerk in mid-air, he plummeted back down towards the ground at an impossible speed, and out of the blood explosion that ensued, a massive, winged, horned beast I knew all too well wielding a large axe erupted from the ground, shattering the roof and roaring.

Bloodthirster.

I'd killed one of these before, back on my very first mission, but that was with the help of my battle-brothers. Here I was alone, and without a proper weapon. Being a blank seemed to weaken it a bit, but not enough to make it an easy fight. This must've been one powerful daemon.

I drew out my bolt pistol once more, but I knew that, unless I got off an insanely lucky shot, it wouldn't be enough. Wrangling Bloodthirsters with nothing but bare hands was a feat only the fabled Angry Marines had managed on a regular basis.

I picked myself up before realizing that there _was_ a weapon, after all. In front of me, Thrall's hammer lay. Heaving it up with my right hand, I started to charge at the daemon, firing shots at its legs as I did so.

It roared in pain, and swung down its axe towards me. Diving out of the way, I kept up with the fire, but didn't expect it to use the flat part to sweep at me. Swept aside by the force, I crashed into the wall.

Groaning and picking myself back up once more, I swiped Thrall's hammer back up once more. This time, however, I noticed that there was lightning coursing through it.

A primitive thunder hammer! Emperor be praised!

The Bloodthirster took another sweep at me, but I dived forwards and dodged the sweep, rising up and slamming the end of it into the daemon's shin.

There was a loud clap of thunder as the daemon roared in pain. The energy coursed through it and started to paralyse its muscles as it tried to sweep at me once more.

Jumping back, I let the axe pass by as its movements were currently clumsy, and leapt onto its shoulder. It rose back up, wondering where I'd gone. It didn't feel my weight on its back. I jumped from its shoulders onto the top of its head, and before it could react, I slammed down the top of the hammer into its skull.

Another thunderclap. Another roar of pain from the daemon.

It dropped its axe and tried to maintain its balance. I kept up the offensive by swinging the hammer in a horizontal arc in the air and jumping, managing enough momentum to launch myself from the daemon's head and into the air in front of its face, where I used the momentum from there to slam the hammer into the side of its head. Another thunderclap sounded, and it was thrown off its feet and fell.

I landed on the ground seconds before it did, holding Thrall's thunder hammer gingerly. Perhaps it was from here too that thunder hammers were inspired back in my universe? If it was, then this thing deserved respect.

After the daemon fell, it started clawing the ground as it was dragged backwards into a large Warp-hole, roaring in protest as it did so.

It finally managed to get a grip on land and stared at me with hate-filled eyes.

'**Frak your False Emperor!**' it roared. '**And frak you, Corschach! _NOOOOOOOOO!_**_'_

How did the thing know my name?

It was of no matter. I raised my leg, and with a mighty kick, pushed the daemon into the Warp-hole, which closed seconds later.

After that I planted the hammer into the ground and uttered a pray of thanks to the Emperor.


End file.
